Gardens-In-The-Sand

Happy full moon

I didn't think to shoot the moon last evening... but I did take lots of garden pics yesterday afternoon...

After a bit of rain, the lantana has put on a flush of new bloom.

To go with all the new blooms, there seems to be a fresh hatch of butterflies...

Painted ladies...

The clear-wing sphinx moth (Hemaris thysbe) is always exciting!

The spicebush swallowtail is abundant...

Gulf Fritillary

Tiger swallowtail

The butterflies haven't found it yet... the tithonia has begun to bloom...

Red chenille (Acalypha hispida), is a new flower to this garden... brought it in last Autumn, most people grow it as a house plant... will see how winter hardy, and how drought tolerant this plant is... seems like red chenille would make a good turf replacement...

This is interesting... the white dwarf crepe myrtle threw a red sport on one limb...

I ate a pear recently, I'm still waiting for them to ripen up a bit more...

The crook-neck summer squash are through, so... here's some new squash seedlings.

I plant all the butterfly weed seed that my plants produce, but these guys don't make it easy...

Milkweed bugs ruin the seeds...

July blooms

When I first started gardening here, It seemed like the humming birds would look for humming bird feeders next to the structures, while ignoring the flowers that I was planting for them... They eventually figured it out...

The goldfinches had no problem finding the sunflowers...

I hate these 7 minute itch plants (Cnidoscolus stimulosus)
With all the butterflies pollinating them, I don't think I'll be rid of them any time soon.

These black grasshoppers are bigger than the plants they eat...

Wonder what the cat is hunting...

The verbesina is blooming.
I found this cool wildflower growing along the side of the road, being mowed. I pulled a coupla pieces, it came up like mint, and was as easy to transplant. The yellow variety hasn't started to bloom yet.

This is an interesting plant... The flowers resemble lavender. This guy is a natural sand-hill resident. I need to post it for identification at a plant forum.
I posted the flower, and got an immediate response... Field snakecotton
You really can't call something a weed when it only grows in sand where little else can grow.

Florida tasselflower (Emilia fosbergii) This plant showed up this year, I only have this one... Ima let it grow, in spite of it's close resemblance to a couple of rogue customers...

River oats are very pretty, but difficult to photograph.

Mint attracts some cool pollinators...
Meet the Double-banded Scoliid (Scolia bicinta).
When not pollinating mint, the double-banded scoliid catches beetle grubs for the next generation.

Tropical milkweed seeds.

As always, the pictures click for larger views.

summer colours

This fence post lizard is wearing his best finery, hanging out on top of a sassafras post... Hoping to attract a new lover.

The brugmansias have begun to bloom.

cluster of honey bees visiting datura wrightii flower

The honey bees seem to be very interested in the datura....

4 gulf frittilary butterflies on zinnia flowers

Gulf fritillary butterflies have found the zinnias.

These red sunflowers are attracting plenty of polinators.

Got some painted lady butterflies...

Silver-spotted skipper enjoys the 7-minute itch plant, even if I don't...

These little yellow cherry tomatoes are sweet!

Most of the squash are through... I still have some, because I replanted some of the thinned plants...

The columbine seedlings are coming along.

Labels: butterflies, perennials

Wind Storm

We've had some record-breaking heat... I think it got up to 108° one day last week. My plants were suffering already in the dry sand, those triple digit temps pushed some stuff right over the edge.

Here's the patch of cukes... They were just starting to produce.
The green stuff isn't cucumber vines...

After the heat, God took pity and sent me some rain, but he wrapped it up in a buncha wind... And knocked down some of my garden trees.

I posted pics of the blooms on this china berry tree this Spring. Chinaberry is a junk tree, and there are plenty of babies, but it just won't be the same... That was a beauty...

While pine trees are unattractive, this one was very close to the house, and broke limbs on a beautiful oak next to the house... I was lucky that it hit the oak, rather than the house!

My garden fence had trees land on it in several places, but I was able to repair the damage before Bambi discovered the new entrances.